Sunflower dearie, since you asked for my recent glam pics to be posted, here are some of them :) Courtesy of Joe of Really Nice Pictures.

Yeah, it’s true. I love being in front of the lens as much as behind it! Hee :P

Here are some pics taken a couple of weeks ago. It’s part of the reason why this blog is not updated as much as it should be. Anyway, at least you get to see why I’m so busy these days. Enjoy :)

Wah lau eh.

So many bookings for today.

Who do I say yes to???

Times like these I wish I could clone myself. That way, I can meet all my dear ones in one day. But I guess having just one me means stretching the bday celebs all the way to next month. Which isn’t a bad deal at all.

I’m much blessed and loved.

Birthday Honor Roll

• First person to wish me happy birthday: Pr. Moy How
• First person to give me a birthday huggy: Mommy
• First person to give me a prezzie: Tie between Hannah (received) and Bezzie (still on it’s way after many messengers and over the post!)
• First people to have a birthday meal with me: My beloved Aussie-fied lunch partners
• First photog to take a glam pic of me: J. Pics will be up soon… :D

Hee!

:P

Lunch pics fresh from the oven

In spite of the crazy busyness that has assailed me at work and at play, I have never been more happy and at peace. My birthday is looming round the corner and already people are planning how to celebrate it – a sweet soul even offered to bake me a butter birthday cake.

As wonderful and sweet as my friends are, they are but just the icing on top of the cake. Over the recent months, I’ve counted the blessings of having good friends and toxic friends. Good friends are good – for obvious reasons. You feel safe with them. Affirmed. Loved. Accepted.

Toxic friends on the surface are bad for health. They can erode your self-esteem. Make you feel bad about yourself and things around you. They cause you to be emotionally bankcrupt and because of this bankcruptcy, you find yourself subconciously seeking for affirmation from people that you are not supposed to. And when you do that, you realised that it’s never enough – two parched souls do not make a wholesome friendship. They will only suck the life out of each other.

In retrospect, toxic friends are good in the sense that they make you realise that you do not need their acceptance nor affirmation. You don’t even need to expect them from others, even from good friends. Such expectations will only cause frustrations and accute emptiness in your heart – because friends are never meant to be that cake in your life. They are just the nice icing on the top.

Through such friendships, I’ve learned to set boundaries and leaning upon the assurance of God that He knew just what He was doing when He made me. And that was what gave me strength, meaning and purpose. The freedom to be who I’m meant to be and the peace that follows is just indescribable.

The good news is that toxic friends can transform to being good friends. It just takes time and effort on both parties to work out the differences and reconcile when they are ready.

So, thank God for friends – both good and toxic. It all does work out for good in the end.

Photo Credits: J

Nothing like meeting old buddies again. Especially like-minded photonuts. The first and last time I met them was during the Livewire Conference in March. Now that Faith is going overseas to further her studies, we figured it was high time for a meetup. We had a blast – as can be attested by the pics above. We shutterbugs took our turns with Sean’s ancient but amazing Canon Powershot G3.

Lovely place, great food and awesome company. What a great way to end a very very busy week.

The past long weekend went by blissfully. It was just nice. I had a day with some of my favourite people in the world, a day to myself and family, and a day for ministry functions.

After the weekend ended, my colleagues and I trooped slowly into the board room for our usual early Mon morning meeting. The atmosphere was subdued, mournful even. My boss noticed it.

“Why is everyone looking so blue today?” he queried after the meeting ended.

“We’re sad because the long weekend ended,” I replied and everyone nodded glumly in unison as we trooped out of the board room.

With a three-day weekend, people would be more rejuvenated to face the 4-day work week ahead. Because of the shorter work-days, you can’t post-pone things too long. You have to get your stuff done asap.

It’s undeniable. Two days is just too short for weekend, doncha think?

Today I celebrated the opening and dedication of two very significant spiritual places in my life. One was my church. We’ve just moved to a nice place and it’s called the Dream Center. Have never seen so many people in the church in one service before. 4,000 people!

The worship and celebration were amazing. I’d feel like I’m in one of those Singaporean mega churches except that I have actually been in this church for the past 5 years. I actually know most of the people on the frontlines. I do feel very much at home in the church. Also, I was there during the church’s 25th anniversary dinner where Senior Pastor Daniel Ho first announced the blue print for Dream Center.

And two years later, the Dream Center came into being. I looked around me and could hardly believe that all these has come to pass in such a short time.

I felt the same during today’s dedication of the Ara Damansara Prayer House. Elijah House Malaysia has moved into the cosy new place since June this year and today was the day we had an official dedication party for it. I’ve been with them for 3 years now and watched the ministry grow from strength to strength. And today, we have our own Prayer House – all 6 bedrooms, 6 toilets and a hall large enough for more than 40 students to congregate in. The hunt for the house started in June last year. And barely a year later, God gave us a dream house which met our exact specifications. And we didn’t even have to toil for it.

Times like these, it renews my faith that what is humongous and impossible to man is possible with God. It can only be the work of God. And yes, dreams do come alive.